Las Vegas Taxi Driver Loses Eye In Slingshot Attack
The unthinkable took place on the night of October 21st. Tilahun Teginge, a taxi driver who immigrated to America back in 1999 from Africa in search of the American dream, had his next fare. He was bringing visitors from Caesars Palace to Treasure Island when he heard a pop. Then he felt pain.
Tilahun was hit in the eye by a rock that was jettisoned out of a slingshot by Enrique Duarte Hidalgo and his son.
How was the shooter caught?
The father was thankfully apprehended last month. Surveillance video showed Hidalgo and his son in the same car during similar reports of slingshot attacks over October and November. When investigators ran the plate it came back to Enrique, and when he was approached he locked himself in his house. He initially denied involvement but eventually copped to what he and his son had done. He’s being charged with with, among other things, battery with the use of a deadly weapon and child abuse for bringing his minor child into the act.
How is Tilahun now?
It is little consolation for Teginge, however. The shot left him bleeding profusely. His passengers calling 911, emergency services rushing him to a local hospital where they made the call to remove his eye. The man who left his homeland in search for opportunity now left likely unable to continue his chosen profession.
Now with help from his daughter, a UNLV student, he is learning to get acclimated to his newfound malady and move forward with his life. His days as a taxi driver very likely behind him due to his lack of stereo vision. He does plan on going back to work but in what capacity and doing what has yet to be determined.
The family has started a GoFundMe to attempt to help Tilahun get his life together and transition to a new career and way of life.
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